Red Munia

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Red Munia

Male in breeding plumage

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Estrildidae
Genus:	Amandava
Species:	A. amandava

Binomial name

Amandava amandava
Linnaeus, 1758

Synonyms

Estrilda amandava

Female in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

The Red Munia, Amandava amandava also known as Red Avadavat or Strawberry Finch, is a sparrow-sized bird of the Munia family. It is found in South Asia with an estimated global extent of occurrence of 10,000,000 km². They are popular cage birds due to the colourful plumage of the males in their breeding season. Their normal habitat is open grassland and paddy fields. They breed in the monsoon season. The species name amandava and the common name of avadavat is derived from the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat from where these birds were exported into the pet trade.

The species is native to Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Burma, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam

Introduced populations also exist in southern Spain, Brunei, Fiji, Malaysia, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore and Hawaii.

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2004). Amandava amandava. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern